'Morning' Peyton chirps.
They've been home from wonderful Paris for two weeks now and even though they're no longer on their honeymoon nothings really changed.
'Hmm something smells goooood!' She hops onto a stool and looks eagerly over the sideboard. 'Pancakes, what am I going to do without you for a week?'
'I really don't know'
He's got a flight to New York at 2pm and it's going to be the first time they've really been apart since they've been married.
Lucas passes her a plate without looking up from the post in his hand.
'What ya got there?' Peyton quirks an eyebrow and shovels a mouthful of buttery pancake into her mouth.
Lucas looks up from the card and she can immediately tell something is wrong.
'What is it?' her smile's gone. 'Luke?'
'It's from Jake'
'Jake Jagielski Jake?'
'Jake Jagielski Jake' Lucas confirms. 'It's a Wedding card, he says sorry that he couldn't make it'
Peyton holds her hand out eagerly. 'I've not heard from him in so long. How is he?'
Lucas gives her the card and she reads it quickly. As her eyes trail over the last sentence, when her eyes trail over the joke about their fleeting engagement her smile drops drastically.
'You were engaged to Jake?'
Peyton doesn't know if to be mad, sad or guilty for the look on his face.
She laughs instead. It's an uneasy, nervous laugh.
'Well?' He snaps impatiently. He's not laughing, this isn't funny.
'It was stupid and was like for a total of nine hours' She shrugs nonchalantly.
'Oh my god, you were engaged to him? Seriously?' He's angry, he's pretty certain he doesn't have any right nor reason to feel that way but jealousy always seems to make him irrational.
'Yes' Peyton frowns. 'Lucas I was seventeen it was forever ago, why are you freaking out?'
He's pacing and she slumps onto the breakfast bar in annoyance. 'You knew I dated him, it's not like you don't know that I've slept with him'
He cringes and holds his hand out, hushing her words. He really doesn't want to think about that. Her sleeping with Jake.
'I didn't know you were going to fucking marry him'
She snorts. 'Okay, will you stop, you didn't freak out over Julian as much as you are now.'
'You weren't engaged to Julian'
She scowls. 'Seriously stop with the pacing you're making me dizzy' She pushes her pancakes away, she's not so hungry anymore.
He stops briefly, regarding her and she stands and walks around the sideboard that's separating them.
'Firstly we were never going to get married it was just me flipping out about me being on my own and secondly what is your problem? I'm married to you, I'm your wife. Don't you think you're being a little dramatic' She puts her hand on his forearm but he shrugs her off, waving his arm erratically.
'You said no to me. You said no to me because we were too young, that's what you said, that we were too young and yet two years earlier you'd been eager to walk down the isle with Jake? Jesus Christ Peyton'
He grabs his jacket and duffel bag off the kitchen table. 'I'm going to miss my flight'
'Lucas, please, don't leave like this'
'I can't look at you right now'
'You promised me we'd never leave each other in the middle of an argument'
'This isn't an argument Peyton, it's your screwed up past coming back to haunt me'
'That's not fair!'
She screeches but her only response is the front door being slammed in her face.
He doesn't ring her when he gets there and she's worried sick. She thinks up all kinds of horrid things. The plane crashed. He's been mugged. He's lying in an ally.
She's too stuborn to call him though. One little phone call and her mind would be put at rest but she won't be the one to make the first move. Not tonight anyway.
Haley calls her half an hour later and tells her she just heard from Lucas. He got to the hotel just fine and is on his way out for drinks with his editor, ie drinks with Lindsey and Peyton's suddenly furious, especially when Haley asks why they're not talking.
She says it's nothing and says she has to go.
She's definitely not calling him.
She goes and sees Brooke instead, they share a bottle of wine or two and Peyton spends the whole evening ranting about her husband and the brunette listens dutifully and promises her that Lucas will call in the morning and this whole thing will be resolved.
He doesn't call in the morning. He doesn't call and Peyton has a splitting headache.
The week passes slowly and they don't speak.
She's more than relieved when friday finally rolls by because she hates not talking and she just wants to end this stupid feud.
He doesn't come home though.
She waits. She waits up late and there's still no sign of him.
So she calls. She calls because she's worried and she needs to know where he is. She calls because she loves him and needs him to know that.
He doesn't answer though. She rings a hundred times and he doesn't pick up.
Peyton eventually contacts her brother in law and she's crying down the phone and he can hardly hear her frantic words but he soon understands and he wants to fly to New York and hit his brother for being such a dick.
'Peyt, he's fine, he's fine. I spoke to him earlier. He's staying out there for a bit longer'
'What?' Peyton sniffles.
'He says he's got a few more book signings and stuff'
'How longs a bit longer?' Peyton exhales.
'I, I don't know. I'm sorry if I'd known he was being such an ass I would've called and let you know, I just assumed he would have spoken to you by now'
'Not your fault' She swallows shakily, rubbing at her eyes. 'I've got to go. Thanks though. I'll speak to you later'
'He'll be home soon Sawyer'
'I know' She answers before hanging up.
She's not only upset, she's beyond pissed now.
He's sitting in New York and looking at his phone with a guilty face. Fifty Eight missed calls from Peyton Scott. His wife. He feels guilty but he soon thinks of her walking down the isle with one of his old friends and he's instantly angry all over again. He's angry because she obviously felt as though she couldn't speak to him about it which makes him think that perhaps she still has lingering feelings for her ex. He's angry because she said she was lonely back then and he was there, only he knows he wasn't who she needed him to be. He's angry because she said no to him but was up for marrying someone two years earlier. His logic tells him he's being stupid. They'd been kids, she'd just been a kid, she'd learnt from her mistakes, she'd not said no to him, she'd said someday and she'd been the mature one to make that decision because they weren't ready for marriage back then, but he hates that she was that serious about someone else, that serious to even consider spending the rest of her life with that someone, her having a family with Jake makes him feel sick.
He grimaces and orders another drink to help him get his head round it. He's got no more meetings, he could be home right now and working this out. He doesn't know why he didn't get on that plane. He doesn't know why he's being so pathetically childish, perhaps it's something to do with the fact that they're married and it's finally sinking in that he can't just think about himself any more, he has Peyton to consider from now on. This realisation is no big news, it's not as though he didn't always consider her before hand, it's just all of a sudden so real and overwhelming and he needs some time to just think.
He stays away for exactly another week before he realises what a jerk he's being, that he's ran away from the best thing that ever happened to him.
Even if she'd married Jake he knows it wouldn't of worked out, because what they have is bigger and stronger than that high school relationship she'd had.
What they have together is undeniable.
Peyton presses her thumb against the red button and speaks 'That was awesome' Her voice chimes through the glass screen into the studio and awaiting muscian. 'Your best yet'
'It was pretty good huh?' Jackson smirks. 'What did you think Lucas?'
Peyton's brow furrows when she hears her husbands voice behind her.
'It was good, if you like that kind of thing' Lucas shrugs a shoulder teasingly but doesn't get to hear whatever Jackson's retort was because Peyton's glower is enough to deafen him.
'What the hell do you think you're doing?'
He hadn't expected to be welcomed but this sure isn't how he'd pictured things going. Maybe he had been a little bit delusional to think the pretty flowers in his hand would fix the situation.
She snatches the bunch of Lillies and throws them carelessly to the ground.
Yep, definitely delusional.
'They were expensive'
'So was your fucking ticket back from New York seven days ago, the plane ticket that you didn't use, that's non-refundable'
'Peyton' He sighs heavily.
'Don't say my fucking name like that, don't you fucking-'
'Stop with the cursing' He rolls his eyes. 'Don't you think you're being a little bit over dramatic'
She grits her teeth and her jaw contracts visibly.
Perhaps she's entitled to be dramatic.
'I'm sorry, can we just, can we just go talk in your office' He gestures to the audience that has gathered eagerly on the otherside of the glass screen.
Without looking, Peyton's hand reaches out and touches the glowing red button once more, giving them some privacy, well somewhat anyhow.
'You need to go'
'Baby please, I want to talk'
'I'm really busy, I'm at work'
'You can take five minutes, Hales said you were finishing up in here anyway, that you were heading home in a while'
'Well, I'm you. I say I'm going home and then I change my mind without letting anyone know because I'm a selfish bitch'
He closes his eyes. 'I'd really like it if we could talk'
'I'm busy, surely you can understand that Luke, after all you've been so busy the last week you've not even been able to pick up a phone and quite frankly I haven't got time to be explaining the in's and out's of my company. Let me word it simply for you, time is money. I haven't got time. You're wasting precious studio time so fucking leave'
He squints at her and she crosses her arms expectantly.
'Leave'
'When you get home we're talking' He points his finger at her and she's a little taken aback by his intimidating stance and for a second she thinks he's going to kiss her like she so badly wants him to because fourteen days is a long time and she just wants him to hold her and for them to forget all about whatever this stupid argument is about.
He doesn't kiss her. He tells her he'll see her in a while and then he leaves and she blinks away her tears.
He's in the garage when she finally ventures home. He's working on her car. It's broken down again and he's determined to try and get back in her good books.
'What're you doing?' She spits, her heels sounding against the concrete floor.
He pulls himself out from beneath the car and she tries desperately not to let him see her ogling blatantly at his sweaty chest. 'What does it look like?'
'You know if your trying to please me you could've started on the house. I've been rushed off my feet with work and not had a second to do any chores. Oh but wait, you wouldn't know that because you're incapable of answering a god damn phone and keeping in touch aren't you Luke?'
'You know you could be a little nicer to the guy that's trying to fix your car, for you' He stresses, pulling himself from the ground.
'I can fix my own god damn car myself'
He snickers.
'What's so fucking funny?' She stomps toward him and his eyes rake down her, she just has to be wearing the sexist attire known to man. She's donning a low cut cream t and a knee length fitted, and when I say fitted, I mean fitted, skirt. She snatches the wrench from his hand. 'You don't think I can? I'll have you know I do listen when you ramble on and on about the boring mechanics of a car' She pushes him and her head disappears beneath the hood.
Lucas takes a few paces back, his leg bent at the knee against the wall. He watches her, or more specifically, he watches her ass. She's just undoing all the work he's just done but he doesn't tell her so.
Her arms all black and she lifts her shirt wiping the dirt away. He swallows thickly and his pants are suddenly horribly tight.
'How's it coming baby?' He taunts, finally stepping forward. His hands dance over her backside and come to rest at her hips.
Her head jerks out of the bonnet and she swivels round, the wrench held threateningly above his crotch.
'Come any closer and I'll make sure you never use that again'
'You wouldn't, who would keep you satisfied then Mrs Scott?' He smirks.
'I can satisfy myself'
He confiscates the weapon from her hand, chucking it back into the tool box without looking. She jumps at the loud clatter and gasps when he grips her upper arm shoving her toward the back of the car.
'Lucas let me go'
He opens the Comet's sleek door and roughly pushes her in. She lands awkwardly on the red leather and shimmies back. He's hovering over her before she can get away. 'Lucas we're not having sex' She declares because she knows that look he's giving her, she hates that she loves that look he's giving her.
'No' He agrees slyly. 'You're going to show me' He demands gruffly. He holds her wrist tightly in one hand while his other hoists her tight skirt up her legs. It takes some effort because it's clinging fiercely to her and her wriggling isn't helping.
'Luke no' She whines but he's stronger and he's soon got the offending skirt crumpled up around her waist.
He directs her hand between her legs and she swallows, shaking her head. 'I'm not doing that'
'You said you could satisfy yourself, show me' He demands. His face is millimetres from hers and her breath is suddenly short.
'I'm not-'
'Yes, yes you are'
Her eyes narrow at his order and she really wishes she wasn't so turned on right now.
They have a stare out. He wins. She relents, perhaps a little too willingly.
His stare leaves her flushed face, he's intent on watching what her right hand is doing.
She takes her time. She may be conforming to his demand but she's going to take her time in doing it. She fingers the damp material between her legs and she watches him lick his lips.
When her hand finally disappears beneath the black lace he moans at the sight.
She smirks at the way he's looking at her and she wants desperately to replace her fingers with his own because he's far better at this than she is and he's the only one that can really satisfy her. But she doesn't beg for him to touch her, she continues to do it herself and she rocks her hips and moans every now and then and does her utmost best to make him think that she's just as capable of getting herself off as he is.
'What're you thinking?' He can't help himself, he let's his palm press against the hand in her underwear and she whimpers loudly at the added pressure and he smirks. 'What're you thinking?'
She gasps and flings her free arm out, blindly grasping at the red leather.
'What're you thinking?' He repeats.
She's thinking of how his fingers feel when he does this, she's thinking of all the amazing things he does to her but that's not what she says.
She hasn't forgotten that they've gone fifteen days without a word. She hasn't forgotten that she's pissed off with him and the purpose of the words that tumble from her lips are simply to provoke him.
'Jake's...fingers...between my legs' She gasps.
It works.
His eyes narrow at this, they narrow scarily and she doesn't think she's ever seen him quite so mad.
He jerks her hand from her underwear and she moans at the loss.
'Don't say shit like that Peyton' He warns in a low growl.
'I'm just being honest' She rasps, tilting her head back and smiling coyly. She rolls her hips against him and says in a low voice 'Jake was always really really great with his hands'
His jaw stiffens and the she watches as he abruptly kneels upright. He undoes his belt with haste and his black eyes have her making a feeble escape.
She doesn't get far.
His hand catches her calf, one swift tug and she's on her back, directly beneath him and he's spreading her legs.
'Lucas' She pushes at his chest and struggles to sit back up but he effortlessly shoves her back and then his fingers are pushing the wet material of her panties to the side and she forgets about her escape because this seems like a much better place to be and then he's pushing into her in one rough motion and then she can't think at all.
'Oh god' She moans, her breath hitches at the quick intrusion and her mind's spinning and he couldn't be more happy by the expression on her face.
'I'm the only one that can satisfy you' He growls.
She nearly nods her head. Yes. He's right. He's the only one that can make her feel.
He pulls out nearly the whole way and she whimpers and then he's angling her hips and thrusting into her as deep as possible and she's whimpering.
She latches her legs around him and then he puts his mouth over hers just like he's been dying to do since he saw her this morning and her tongue is battling his in an instant and he groans at how good she is at kissing.
Her t-shirt's pushed up above her bra and his hands are everywhere all at once.
They don't speak. He's angry and being rough and possessive and she's mad and rejected after the last week but mostly just feeling guilty because this whole argument needn't of happened if she'd just opened up to him and already shared the stupid story of her and Jake.
It's over quickly, far too quickly and they're both panting. Her chest is glazed with sweat and his weight is suffocating.
His breath tickles her neck and then he's lifting himself off of her.
She bites her bottom lip as she watches him fasten his pants and then he's clambering out of the car without another look in her direction and she's never felt more used.
He goes back to fixing her car and she just lays there, her skirt still hitched up to her chest, the only difference is her makeups streaming.
He pretends he doesn't keep seeing a glimpse of her long legs, he pretends she's not there, he pretends he can't hear her muffled sob.
'I didn't mean it' She whispers sometime later, once she's tugged her clothes back into place.
He ignores her.
'I didn't mean it' She says louder this time, dragging herself from the backseat. Her legs are shaky and she can hardly stand and he looks at her with a smug expression when she stumbles. 'For god sake Lucas, will you grow up and just fucking speak to me'
'What do you want me to say Peyton?'
'I don't know' She exclaims. 'It was a decade ago, I was just a fucking kid, I thought I was alone. My dad was at sea, my mum dead, Haley had Nathan and Brooke had you and at seventeen I thought that was it for me'
'You asked him to marry you' He growls. 'You said no to me Peyton, you said no because we were too young and yet you asked a guy to marry you two years earlier?'
'You're a dick'
He shakes his head in annoyance. 'Now who's being childish?'
'You are Luke. Wether you like it or not we're married now. We're not seventeen and you can't just go off and not talk to me for two weeks because you're pissed off about something that happened forever ago. Communication is part of marriage, I don't care if you yell and scream at me but don't fucking disappear off the face of the earth'
She has a point. He scratches the back of his neck.
'God I needed you Luke' She whispers tearfully. 'It was the anniversary of my mum's death and I needed you here'
His eyes widen. He'd had that day in his diary, he'd made a note of that day so he could be there for her, because it didn't matter how much time went by she still found that day really, really hard.
'Peyton'
He's a dick. She's right.
He walks over to her and his hand lightly rests against her cheek.
She avoids his eyes.
'Sweetheart I'm sorry, I'm really sorry.' He toys with the bottom of her shirt and sighs. 'I know I've been a jerk, I just, I wish you'd told me'
'I know. I wish I'd told you too. I loved Jake, I did. I just wasn't in love with him and he knew that. He told me he couldn't marry me, you want to know why Luke? Cause I said that I loved you in my sleep. Even then it was you. I'm with you and you're all I ever wanted.'
He kisses her forehead. 'I'm sorry I didn't call'
'You're an ass for not calling' She nods. 'I was worried sick'
'You were worried?'
'Of course I was worried' She exclaims.
He smiles and then she smiles and they kiss sweetly and gently and nothing like before.
He pulls back slightly when her tongue flicks across his lips. 'Were, were you really thinking about Jake t-touching you just now?' He's referring to her crude declaration and she raises her eyebrows at how cute and insecure he looks right now.
'Of course I wasn't' Her cheeks blush. 'I'm sorry. You know I wasn't, of course I wasn't. I was thinking about you touching me Luke' She's looking right into his eyes. 'I was thinking of all the amazing things you do to me'
He kisses her again, needily this time and she pulls away breathless. 'I'm going to need a while before we do that again' She admits with a sly smile.
He laughs. 'I'm sorry'
'No you're not'
'I'm not'
She hits him lightly and his smile softens.
'Seriously, are you okay though?'
'I'm fine, I can't walk properly but I'm just fine' She smiles, she aches in the best possible way.
'I'm sorry I was so rough'
She shakes her head dismissively because he really hasn't hurt her and she kind of loves it when he's so domineering. 'I'm sorry I was a bitch'
They spend the rest of the evening fixing her car, together.
They talk about what they've both been doing. Lucas tells her about his book signings and meetings. Peyton tells him about her work, she tells him about how well Mia's record's doing and she goes on and on and Lucas just smiles because he loves how passionate she is about her work.
Later he insists on taking her out, he drives her to the cemetery and they visit her Mum's grave, together and she thanks him and he promises he'll never miss that day again.
When they get back it's already late, it's nearing ten when they've finally eaten- courtesy of Lucas. He pokes her skinny stomach and interrogates her about what she's been eating (or lack there of) in his absence. She looks skinnier. She shrugs sheepishly and he rolls his eyes and lectures her that she's got to learn to cook. She claims she can cook, she just likes his cooking a lot better and he feels guilty all over again for not having been here.
When they've finished he runs her a bath and she has a long soak, until he decides he's dirty and joins her and at first they just lay there in each others arms and it's completely innocent but it soon becomes something else and they hurriedly clamber out of the tub and Lucas some how manages to get them to the bedroom. They land on the bed and their both soaking wet but neither of them care, they're too wrapped up in each other. They make love then and this time it's nothing like before. They're gentle and tender. They whisper to each other and exchange words of devotion and I love you's and even though the last two weeks have been unbearable for the both of them and this argument was stupid and trivial, they're elated. It's been their first row as a married couple and they feel as if they can overcome anything and everything and they know they will.